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We desire and deserve peace in Arochukwu today. We are tired of intrigue of divide and rule

Let’s tell ourselves the truth, all has not been well with Aro kingdom
governance for some time now. We have had several self-inflicted crises and
conflicts that had worked against our unity and had negatively, to noticeable
extent, divided us as a people of one kingdom. Certain events today have proved
we have been deceived by intrigue (secret schemes) of some ‘divide and rule
agents’ among us. We have pretended a lot for so long believing that all was
well. But time has come to speak the truth to the head, to seek peace, pursue
peace and secure it.

Many villages are really in crises, some have been divided along kindred
lines. Council of Ndi Ezeogo and Okpankpo Aro had been ridiculed and dissolved.
Some Kindred leaders have deliberately been fighting to have their own
autonomous communities carved out of the kingdom. As a people, we have been
divided and torn apart by several unfortunate internal conflicts, most often
generated by some of our overzealous kindred biased leaders. The result of all
these is that Arochukwu is now rapidly losing its vital political, social and
traditional relevance as a renowned historic kingdom. Our unity is shaky.
Arochukwu and Eze Aro that used to be highly respected and regarded by the
entire Igbo nation and none Igbo people within and outside Nigeria are both on
the verge of being relegated to the background. Our dignity as a kingdom is now
doubtful. Mazi Ugochukwu Okorafor recently wrote on Rebuilding Aro Nation
platform: “Sadly Arochukwu is gradually being relegated to the background in
current Igbo affairs and our history is being similarly eroded and revised.

When you look at the pre-1966 almanacs of Eastern Nigeria, three
traditional rulers would usually be featured prominently – the Amanyanabo of
Opobo, the Obong of Calabar and the Eze Aro of Arochukwu. Today, even in a much
smaller geographical-political expression like Abia state, the Arochukwu
monarch is struggling to be relevant. He is not even the knee jerk leader of
the Abia state council of traditional rulers”. To some people, Eze Aro does not
even appear to be the king for the whole Aro kingdom anymore; he seems now to
be just a mere head of a certain kindred, whose palace place at Oror has even
been ceded by a recent Abia state autonomous communities law to a different
kindred community outside his own in Arochukwu. What an irony of fate. That may
be allegedly where we are today or where we are gradually heading to.

But Eze Aro himself should seriously think about this and begin to
imagine how such unfortunate development, if it is allowed to stand, might
affect the future interests of his throne and sustainable relevance of the Eze
Aro institution and even Arochukwu as a kingdom in the scheme of things
locally, nationally and globally. Some umuaro tend to believe that Eze Aro and
his inner caucus might have unwittingly contributed to this unfortunate
situation through His Majesty’s various acts of omission and commission. The
good news is that he still holds the key to the doors of solutions to some of
the challenges. He can do a lot much better than he is currently doing. He
should find a workable solution to restore Aro kingdom unity, peace and dignity
of Eze Aro throne and Arochukwu kingdom before it is too late. Eze Aro remains
our paramount king. With wise counsel he can still amend the mistakes through
reconciliation and understanding and achieve the unity and peace we desire. All
are in his hands. His predecessor, late Mazi Kanu Oji, applied great wisdom
strategy in his leadership of Aro kingdom. He summarized his wisdom leadership
style in his most quoted proverb: “Anagiachi’ Aro achi; ana`e’sowo’ eso’. (You
don’t lead Aro as if they are animals; you lead them with humane understanding
and follow them with wisdom). In other words, wisdom is the principal thing:
“Ako bu ije”

We urge His Majesty to adopt the same wisdom strategy in resolving the
problems facing Aro kingdom today. Pretending that nothing is wrong cannot help
the matter. We urge the king to rise and reconcile with all his people. It is
an important thing and a good approach to restoring peace in his kingdom. We
urge him to call his village heads (Ndi Ezeogo), all his past and present
community leaders and sincerely offer unconditional general amnesty to them,
and even to his presumed offenders in his family and among his former and
current inner caucus members. Let it be that “all have sinned” and come short
of any praise. Forgiveness and understanding will resolve everything. Eze Aro
nearly got it right on 26th December 2018 Aro day when he publicly announced he
had totally forgiven everyone that had offended him and he urged others to also
forgive one another. He advised all to: “let every tattered basket go down the
drain”; and that all should embrace peace and move forward. That was a great
message, delivered on his behalf by Mazi Oji Kanu Oji. That message was apt and
was received with joy by everyone that was there. The news went viral across
the city almost immediately. Every citizen who heard it was happy too.

But few days later, all the gains made by that message of peace were
totally lost. It appeared to be an empty promise. Because some members of Eze
Aro’s inner caucus who used to write some controversial letters for him in the
past seemed to be uncomfortable with the free gifted peace message. May be the
palace letter writers had expected HM to extract some pounds of flesh from
their perceived foes before peace could be made. As usual, they took advantage
of the King’s state of health and used his 2019 new-year message letter to express
their anger. The letter, probably written in anger, was not even needed at all.
Most of its contents were not in tandem with the spirit of the king’s 2018 Aro
day peace message that was widely applauded. Sadly, the authors of the letter
had requested, among other things, a review of what they addressed as “the
causes of disloyalty of Ndi Eze ogo and Okpankpo Aro”. Many questions then
arose: (1).Was there any need to refer to, or call for any review of, any
“disloyalty of Ndi Eze ogo and Okpankpo Aro” after Eze Aro had openly
pronounced a statement of ‘let every bye gone be bye gone”? (2).Were the
authors of the letter now inferring that the monarch’s 2018 Aro day peace
message was a fake? (3).Or had something not yet known to many people happened
soon after?

People believe that the letter writers had added bad salt and pepper on
a wound that was about to heal. Nobody had expected any peace loving person in
Aro to raise any controversial issue like “disloyalty of Ndi Eze ogo and
Okpankpo Aro” after Eze Aro had given the entire Aro an open free peace gift.
There was also a certain Abia state government gazette which had already been
signed into law by Governor Okezie Ikpeazu on 29thJune 2018 that
listed newly created autonomous communities in the state. It happened that two
autonomous communities (one for Ibom Isii and the other for Ezeagwu) were
mentioned as having been created in Arochukwu and with certain number of
villages named and assigned to each Eze of those two autonomous communities to
rule and control. But this is contrary to what we had agreed in 2001. Many
people abruptly kicked against the new development, even as controversies on
the issue arose and deepened. In all these, all that was needed would have been
a careful application of diplomatic wisdom in handling the issues. But the
palace letter writers chose to describe the clear obvious issues in that
government gazette as “Fake News”. That annoyed many people and they quickly
reacted negatively. The crisis deepened more. The letter thus caused more harm
than good. But there is still a way forward to manage the situation. I believe
Eze Aro can still amend it all and manage it well. It is a matter of his
responsibility. I believe he should quickly announce a re-inauguration of the
Council of Ndi Eze ogo, and immediately call them (Ndi Ezeogo) to a round table
reconciliation meeting. At the meeting, His Majesty should simply repeat to
them his 2018 Aro day peace message. “Let all the tattered baskets of the past
go down the drain: “Nkata karaka, ya’ la’ na-agbo’-mmiri;”.Let all the bye gone
be totally bye gone”.

Eze Aro should also do similar thing with the body of Okpankpo Aro by
holding a meeting with its members after reconstituting it, probably with sets
of members as he may deem fit. But let that be done after due consultations
with some citizens with genuine interest for peace. He should also invite Nzuko
Aro, both men and women’s wings, for a “special get together” peace meeting
probably on 2019 Eke EkpebAro day in order to consolidate all the peace
efforts. All these may cost nothing. It is not good for Eze Aro to continue to
battle with various vital units of leadership in his kingdom. No; it is not
good. At his old age and time, he needs peace in his domain more than anyone
else. Many people are willing to help him achieve genuine reconciliation that
will help usher in sustainable peace in Arochukwu. Let no one play any prank by
putting pepper in the medicine that will be applied to the eyes. You cannot
truly extend a handshake of peace with a clinched fist. We should learn to
approach every peace process honestly with clean mind and open hands. We really
do not want peace extracted by force. We want sustainable peace that is freely
negotiated through honest dialogue that brings mutual understanding. Eze Aro is
in a good authority to direct good course of peace in his kingdom. He should
find some means to hold the kingdom peacefully united and together again.
Because a kingdom that allows its self to be divided no matter by whatever
means may find it hard to stand firmly together as a kingdom anymore. We are much
better and stronger together as one indivisible kingdom.

Since the death of our legend Eze Aro, Mazi Kanu Oji (MBE, CON, CFR) in
1987,Arochukwu has faced several conflicts, from one form to another. We
battled with the issue of Eze Aro’s stool succession tussle that lasted about
eight years; and that created some divisions among the people. We eventually
overcame that by an act of God. The stool succession battle led us to another
battle where some kindred began to demand creation of separate autonomous
communities in Arochukwu kingdom along kindred lines. Some of us opposed the
move. Fortunately, we overcame that battle by working out a certain special
arrangement with Governor Orji Uzor Kalu of Abia State on 31st December 2001. I
was one of those at the center of it. The deal we had with Orji Uzor Kalu, gave
Eze Ibom Isii and Eze Ezeagwu state government recognitions and staff of office
as second class chiefs, but without expressly extracting any specific villages
from Arochukwu kingdom that each of the two would rule and control; all they
were required to do was to remain faithful and loyal to Eze Aro, who has a
higher authority than them, and for them to assist him in the leadership of
Arochukwu as a kingdom. That arrangement was a wise one as we were careful and
mindful of the complex composition of various kindred units in some villages
like Atani and Oror, to mention just two.

But recent developments on creation of autonomous communities in
Arochukwu, now signed into law by Governor Okezie Ikpeazu on 29th June, 2018
have created some complex crises in the polity. Now a kindred unit in a
composite village, like Atani, is already in court with Eze Atani and Eze
Ezeagwu over the issue. That was what we tried to avoid and really avoided by
securing that special arrangement with Orji Uzor Kalu in 2001.There was also a
time in the past when Eze Aro with Ndi Ezeogo on his side, had battles with Eze
Ibom Isii and Eze Ezeagwu (the two Kindred heads).Later things changed; Eze
Ibom Isii and Eze Ezeagwu got united with Eze Aro and they began their own
battles with Ndi Ezeogo on the other side. Things degenerated to an intrigue
game of divide and rule that have persisted even till now. Latter Eze Aro was
ill advised to dissolve the Council of Ndi Ezeogo which he was the chairman. He
got up one day and dissolved it. He also dissolved the Okpankpo Aro (a highest
decision making body in Aro kingdom) which he was the chairman. Unfortunately,
HM was equally made to fall out with Nzuko Aroworld wide, an umbrella union of
all Arochukwu development organizations. And prior to that, there was a crisis
in Nzuko Aro Women’s wing and HM was also unfortunately dragged into. Thus, Eze
Aro found himself and his palace in unnecessary conflicts with almost all the
important leadership institutions in his kingdom.

The secret game plan was to make Eze Aro and his palace deserted and
lonely so as to weaken his royal influence, grip of power and authority in Aro
kingdom. But he didn’t realize it. People who saw that early and kicked against
such untidy secret schemes to diminish the dignity of our king were wrongfully
misunderstood by those who call the shots in his palace. But some people were
not deterred from engaging on various positive attempts to find solutions that
could restore peace and his dignity. The Body of National Patrons of Nzuko Aro
which some of us are still members rose boldly to recommend some solutions to
some of the problems in Arochukwu. But their brilliant ideas, well written down
and passed to the palace, were ignored, and may be thrown into the dust bin by
those driving the minds of leadership in the palace. Naturally Eze Aro as a
person is a peaceful man. And now that he is getting older he needs peace more
than ever before. He needs to put his house, his palace, and his kingdom in
order. He needs peace in his kingdom. And he needs the cooperation and
understanding of many willing citizens of Arochukwu to help him achieve all
these.

Some Umuaro are willing to help. Various social, physical and economic developments have been going on in Arochukwu these few years, championed by few umuaro, but without much relevant inputs from, or any special reference to Eze Aro and the palace. Aro Civic Center has been completed; many internal roads are been reconstructed and tarred in Arochukwu today. Rebuilding Aro Nation platform members have successfully taken up some laudable projects like rehabilitation of Aro High Court judge’s quarters, refurbishing of police security patrol vans, and an ongoing rehabilitation of a school block in Amoba Primary School. But none of these projects attracted the attention of, or comments from the palace, nor from Eze Aro. All of these may be an indication that the old time vital relevance of our king is gradually fading and being eroded by, among other things, the many battles the king has been having with his people. Time to change all that is now. Human mind remains a battle field where people fight their fiercest battles. Eze Aro should have a change of mind and seek genuine reconciliation with people. He should work smartly to restore peace in his royal family and dignity and relevance of the Aro kingdom throne. Peace is a very important issue in any human community. It is an essential commodity every good leader must treasure and possess. We truly desire and deserve to have sustainable peace with justice in Arochukwu going forward .